Improvement in carriage-brakes



W. D. SHELDON.

Wagon-Brake.

NO. 43.044 Patented June 7, L864 jnvenjor N. PETERS. PHOTOMTNDGRAPHER. WASHINGTON D c UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE WILLIAM D. SHELDON, OF WVOLOOTT, NEV YORK.

vIMPROVEMENT IN CARRIAGE-BRAKES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 43,044, dated June 7, 1834.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM D. SHELDON, of \Volcott, in the county of \Vayne and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Self Acting Wagon and Carriage Brake; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification.

Figure l is a top view of the running-gear of a wagon provided with my improved brake; Fig. 2, a central longitudinal vertical section thereof.

Like letters designate corresponding parts in both figures.

I employ a tongue or pole, B, hinged at 1), between the hounds O. O of the wagon. Un- (er the tongue and sustained there, in suitable guidesupports, is a draftrod, I), having a sliding movement backward and forward sufficient to produce the required motion for operating the brakes. It acts also as a holdback hook and bar. The rear portion of this rod extends back somewhat beyond thetongue, and turns up around it and forward some distance over the top thereof, substantially as shown in the drawings. Through the extremity of it, which terminates in an eye, a bolt, f, passes down, and also through a vertical longitudinal slot, (1, in the tongue, of sufficient length to allow the required movement to be given to the rod. The hook or loop portion 9 of the rod passes through two slots or oblong holes, respectively, in the inner ends of two levers, E E, through which the power is applied to operate the brake. This portion of the rod 1), having considerable vertical extent, and moving freely in the slots h hot'the said levers, ottersno impediment to the free turning of the tongue B in the bounds G C. The levers E E are suitably pivoted at 00, under the hounds, the slots h h in their inner ends permitting them to turn freely on their pivots. Into the outer ends, respectively, of these levers connecting-rods ii are secured, and extend back to the brake-bar G, which is supported and has a transverse or forward and backward sliding movement in loops or guides under the hounds, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2. The rubbers H H are hinged on the ends of the brake-barG, and hang down therefrom. Their shape and position in relation to the wheels A A of the wagon are such that when the wagon is going down hill, and the weight of the same presses forward, the wheels, turning in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. .2, will cause the rubbers to hug close to their rims and wedge them there, thus performing the proper office of a brake; but when the wagon is purposely backed, and the wheels are turned in the opposite direction, they have a tendency to release the rubbers from their rims and to prevent the brake action.

The operation of this brake is obvious. When descendinga hill, and the wagon by its gravity presses forward against the team, the rod D of course slides backward under the tongue and operates the levers E E, and these levers draw forward, by the connectingrods M, the brake-bar G, so as to bring its rubbers H H against the peripheries of the wheels A A. The slot 61 and pin f, or its equivalent, serve to limit the movement of the rod D, and enable the rod to be used as a draft rod as well as a backing-rod, and they permit the tongue to turn in the hounds with out restraint.

My improvement is applicable to drays and one-horse carts by duplicating the necessary parts and applying to both of the thills, in-

stead of to the single tongue or pole of large wagons and carts.

1 do not claim a bow at the rear end of a tongue or of thills to allow a free movement in the levers by which the brake-bar is operated, as such has been used before, but in a different connection-that is, with a sliding tongue, to which it is fixedly secured. Neither do 1 claim a sliding rod under the tongue, nor a slot in the tongue limiting the movement of such a rt d, separately considered; but

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The arrangement and combination of the hinged tongue B, with its slot 07, the sliding rod 1), with its pin f and how 9, and the levers E E, with slots h It in their inner ends, all operating together, substantial y as and for the purpose herein specified.

The above specification of my improved carriage-brake signed by me this 23d day of December, 1863.

\VILLIAM D. Sl IELDOL Vitnesses:

J AMES WRIGHT, HENRY SHELDON. 

